Do you know the significance of THIS October 31, 2017? You should.
In many ways the great thinkers and reformers of both Christianity and
Politics in the last 500 years can find a primary catalyst that enabled their
freedom of expression through the beginning act of what gave us the Protestant
Reformation of the modern era. It is
called REFORMATION DAY, and on October 31, 1517, 500 years ago, a University
Professor and Priest, Martin Luther, on the same day tacked up his 95 Theses
upon the doors of several churches at Wittenburg Germany (including All Saints
Church) and notified the Archbishop of these same grievances in which the Pope
and his emissaries to sell indulgences to raise money (to build what we now
call the Vatican's St. Peter's basilica)
completely violated the Holy Scriptures.
It is only because of
Protestant Christianity, a Protestant Christianity we recognize as truly
launched with the posting and delivering of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther on
October 31, 2017, 500 years ago, that we have come to as a result, enjoy so
many of the freedoms and liberties in the world today. It is Christ Jesus and the knowledge and free
sharing of the Holy Scriptures that sets men free, and the good fruits of that
are easily seen for those that have eyes to see, and a brain that can
cognitively discern what even those who were America's Enlightened Founders
knew in their day.
"Without Freedom Of Thought,
There
Can Be No Such Thing
As
Wisdom,
And No
Such Thing As Publick Liberty
Without
Freedom Of Speech."
-- Benjamin Franklin,
In 1892, even the Supreme Court of the United States
recognized that this nation at that time was indeed a CHRISTIAN nation generally,
and it was evident by the liberating Christian Influence upon our laws and
business and manners and customs, or words to this effect. See:
CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY V. UNITED STATES, 143 U. S. 457
(1892) pp. 465-471
The Protestant Christian Reformation truly accelerated the era
known as the "Renaissance", and it was Protestant Christianity,
despite religious and political corruption of an Inquisition that would last
605 years, from 1203 to 1808 A.D., Protestant Christianity alone can be cited
as the foundation of liberating laws of governance and thought in the Western
Nations, especially that group that colonized and then created the United
States of America through the freedoms and religious liberties that Protestant
Christianity alone allowed and encouraged and nurtured.
In 1203, Pope Innocent III persecuted pre-Luther Protestants
of Paulicians and especially directed the armies of the Crusades to mass murder
and exterminate the culturally and politically far superior Albigenses sect of
them in France for Heresy in believing Scriptures and the Word of GOD over Pope
Innocent III himself in Rome. The
Albigenses dared follow the teachings of the Apostle Paul and to be literate in
his letters and teachings, and to Pope Innocent III, only sanctioned leaders
and direct subordinates ordained within Roman Catholicism were allowed to know
the actual contents of the Scriptures, as with-holding power kept the common
folk superstitious, and any lies and manipulations made by his representatives
on any issue or occasion could NOT be challenged and immediate OBEDIENCE could
be so demanded at the cost of eternal damnation for the slightest offense, even
though entirely a lie to do so.
It appears that Pope Innocent III had for his inquisition
(dis-propertying, torturing, and the killing of those who are the TRUE
Christians) inspiration, Emperor Diocletian, an Eastern Roman Empire Emperor who
reigned some 900 years before Innocent III’s time of beginning his own
Inquisition from Rome.
From about 303 to 311
A.D., the Emperor Diocletian and his co-regent, Galerius, persecuted those who
were true Christians, ordering all copies of the Christian Scriptures to be
burned, and to effectually call these as divested of most of the very rights of
citizenship, while persecuting them, removing them from all forms of civil
government, and compelling them to offer incense to the Greco-Roman deities or
be executed; often on the spot. The
history of Roman Catholicism from its rise to power in the 600s A.D. to its
obsession with totalitarian megalomania under Pope Innocent III and beyond, was
all about depriving the people of the Word of GOD, and wielding its knowledge
as if an occultism of political empowerment and mystique and superstitious fear
enabled dominance that would make it a one day rule all the known world
power. And in case you think any
reference to Innocent III is irrelevant here, then check out the plaque of
Innocent III as a name revered now in Congress, located since 1950 in the House
of Representatives ...
...and is listed as one of 23 men who a post 1950 Congress is
to view as an influence as they make and consider laws. Had the Architect of the Capitol attempted to
include not just Innocent III, but even some several of the other of the 23
names present in 1850 instead of 1950, he would have been beaten and perhaps
even shot by the then 1850 members of Congress, and severely rebuked in public
articles by scholars and statesmen alike who would have demonstrated that some
of these were NOT in anyway direct nor beneficial influences upon our
Constitutional Republic at all, but political perversions and unwelcome alien
bought and paid for historical revisionisms.
Perhaps some of the readers would be advised to look at the
names and faces upon the plaques that Congress is advised to emulate and
imitate as placed over their doors to the assembly of the United States House
of Representatives.
Pope Innocent III:
‘We may according to the fulness of our power, dispose of the law
and dispense above the law. Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that
separates them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a
man but of the true God.’
I Book of Gregory 9 Decret. C3.
And this man is offered to Congress as a man to imitate and be
an example as a good law-giver by the architect of the Capitol in 1950 and
beyond? Good grief...that really is a
TRICK and certainly NOT a treat for WE THE PEOPLE. Roman Catholicism had nothing to do with
founding this nation, but they did subvert Masonry and a few of the Founders by
continued associations after the fact, making true headway only when it was
years AFTER the Bill of Rights was
ratified (as I understand it...).
There will certainly be a natural animosity of those who would
even dare to follow the New Testament writings of the Apostle Paul as the Word
of GOD over any Pope, or bishop or anyone else, the same as has been done since
the second half of the first century, and even in Rome in revolt to Victor, the
13th Bishop of Rome (later mis-titled and relabeled a pope) by example. Rome had its own first Protestant Reformation
without a schism in the last two decades of the second century. That was not the case many centuries later.
Especially from the 9th Century on. And
example of the animosity to those who dared even have a tradition and claim to
early Christianity through the Apostle Paul, 30 years before Martin Luther's 95
Theses, in 1487, Pope Innocent VIII,
envious that a group of Pauline Christians had faithfully thrived in rich
apostolic tradition since the times of the Apostles themselves, utilized the
promise of indulgences to mob armies to war against the Vaudois in the Piedmont
Valley and other mountain Valleys of northern Italy, and kill off all the males
and rape and then kill most all the women.
It was Rome's position from 1203 to pretty much the early
1600s that should any Roman Catholic even disagree that a Roman Catholic labeled
heretic be put to death, in the eyes of Roman Catholicism, he or she was cut
off, and as far as they in Rome were concerned, there was no salvation
available for them, ever. However, with
the publishing of Erasmus' New Testament in Greek in 1516 -- being possessed by
Martin Luther in 1517 as he wrote his own archbishop and publicly posted his 95
theses in Wittenburg, most notably at the door of the All Saints Church (as
well as other Catholic Churches in Wittenburg) on October 31, 1517 -- the power
of the printed Word of GOD in the hands of the believer was the TRUE Reformer
of the Church of Jesus Christ, and the founding catalyst that gave the world
Protestant Christianity, the Age of Enlightenment, and even the United States
of America's Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. In Germany, you will notice that the statues
of Roman Catholic Churches have statues with priests that silently stand as a
type of testimony to Martin Luther.
Before Martin Luther, the statues of the priests have the Bibles with
the pages of the Scriptures always hidden from the people. After Martin Luther, the statues in order to
keep congregations began only after that period to have the bible pages face
out so that the people might know it was now available to them...when before a
copy of the Scriptures in Latin, or Greek, and especially your own language
would be a pre-Luther death sentence, and your own bible pages used to light
the faggots as you burned at the stake like John Hus.
When reading the 95 theses, one should be especially aware of
the 6th Chapter of Romans and Paul's teaching of Justification by Faith into
Jesus Christ alone and what He did at the Cross, that it is Faith into Christ
Jesus alone that saves. The Roman
Catholic Church and a man playing "pope" by this or that word or
decree (be it spoken or written) means nothing as it regards the salvation of
the human soul.
So if anyone wishes to celebrate the true Hollowed Evening,
then let us do away with Halloween that promotes Satanism and death, and one
person or one family at a time, let us instead celebrate our Freedom in Christ
Jesus and now recognize October 31 as REFORMATION DAY, and ask people to share the
95 theses of Martin Luther, and the blessings that Protestant Christianity has
brought to the world in the influence to freedom and liberty in those who most
promote its counsel in Government and among the people at the times those
enlightened ones did so. Congress once
ordained a Bible issued to every school in America (when we were but 3,000,000
plus) in the 1790s. In our own day, one
person or one family at a time, let's
get back to our nation's Founding Principles and the Holy Bible these Founding
Fathers all read and were guided by, and many like Benjamin Rush had University
and other public Bible Studies by.
The 95 Theses Martin Luther both Tacked up to Churches In Wittenburg Germany and also sent to his Archbishop on October 31, 1517
Out of
love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin
Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at
Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them
in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute
with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Amen.
1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, "Repent ye,
etc.," intended that the whole life of his believers on earth should be a
constant penance.
2. And
the word "penance" neither can, nor may, be understood as referring
to the Sacrament of Penance, that is, to confession and atonement as exercised
under the priest's ministry.
3.
Nevertheless He does not think of inward penance only: rather is inward penance
worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh.
4.
Therefore mortification continues as long as hatred of oneself continues, that
is to say, true inward penance lasts until entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.
5. The
Pope will not, and cannot, remit other punishments than those which he has
imposed by his own decree or according to the canons.
6. The
Pope can forgive sins only in the sense, that he declares and confirms what may
be forgiven of God; or that he doth it in those cases which he hath reserved to
himself; be this contemned, the sin remains unremitted.
7. God
forgives none his sin without at the same time casting him penitent and humbled
before the priest His vicar.
8. The
canons concerning penance are imposed only on the living; they ought not by any
means, following the same canons, to be imposed on the dying.
9.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit, acting in the Pope, does well for us, when the
latter in his decrees entirely removes the article of death and extreme
necessity.
10.
Those priests act unreasonably and ill who reserve for Purgatory the penance
imposed on the dying.
11. This abuse of changing canonical penalty into the penalty of
Purgatory seems to have arisen when the bishops were asleep.
12. In
times of yore, canonical penalties were imposed, not after, but before,
absolution, as tests of true repentance and affliction.
13. The
dying pay all penalties by their death, are already dead to the canons, and
rightly have exemption from them.
14.
Imperfect spiritual health or love in the dying person necessarily brings with
it great fear; and the less this love is, the greater the fear it brings.
15. This
fear and horror - to say nothing of other things - are sufficient in themselves
to produce the punishment of Purgatory, because they approximate to the horror
of despair.
16.
Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven seem to differ as perfect despair, imperfect
despair, and security of salvation differ.
17. It
seems as must in Purgatory love in the souls increase, as fear diminishes in
them.
18. It
does not seem to be proved either by arguments or by the Holy Writ that they
are outside the state of merit and demerit, or increase of love.
19.
This, too, seems not to be proved, that they are all sure and confident of
their salvation, though we may be quite sure of it.
20.
Therefore the Pope, in speaking of the perfect remission of all punishments,
does not mean that all penalties in general be forgiven, but only those imposed
by himself.
21. Therefore, those preachers of indulgences err who say that,
by the Pope's indulgence, a man may be exempt from all punishments, and be
saved.
22. Yea,
the Pope remits the souls in Purgatory no penalty which they, according to the
canons, would have had to pay in this life.
23. If
to anybody complete remission of all penalties may be granted, it is certain
that it is granted only to those most approaching perfection, that is, to very
few.
24.
Therefore the multitude is misled by the boastful promise of the paid penalty,
whereby no manner of distinction is made.
25. The
same power that the Pope has over Purgatory, such has also every bishop in his
diocese, and every curate in his parish.
26. The
Pope acts most rightly in granting remission to souls, not by the power of the
keys - which in Purgatory he does not possess - but by way of intercession.
27. They
preach vanity who say that the soul flies out of Purgatory as soon as the money
thrown into the chest rattles.
28. What
is sure, is, that as soon as the penny rattles in the chest, gain and avarice
are on the way of increase; but the intercession of the church depends only on
the will of God Himself.
29. And
who knows, too, whether all those souls in Purgatory wish to be redeemed, as it
is said to have happened with St. Severinus and St. Paschalis.
30.
Nobody is sure of having repented sincerely enough; much less can he be sure of
having received perfect remission of sins.
31. Seldom even as he who has sincere repentance, is he who
really gains indulgence; that is to say, most seldom to be found.
32. On
the way to eternal damnation are they and their teachers, who believe that they
are sure of their salvation through indulgences.
33.
Beware well of those who say, the Pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of
God by which man is reconciled to God.
34. For
the forgiveness contained in these pardons has reference only to the penalties
of sacramental atonement which were appointed by men.
35. He
preaches like a heathen who teaches that those who will deliver souls out of
Purgatory or buy indulgences do not need repentance and contrition.
36.
Every Christian who feels sincere repentance and woe on account of his sins,
has perfect remission of pain and guilt even without letters of indulgence.
37.
Every true Christian, be he still alive or already dead, partaketh in all
benefits of Christ and of the Church given him by God, even without letters of
indulgence.
38. Yet
is the Pope's absolution and dispensation by no means to be contemned, since it
is, as I have said, a declaration of the Divine Absolution.
39. It
is exceedingly difficult, even for the most subtle theologists, to praise at
the same time before the people the great wealth of indulgence and the truth of
utter contrition.
40. True
repentance and contrition seek and love punishment; while rich indulgence
absolves from it, and causes men to hate it, or at least gives them occasion to
do so.
41. The
Pope's indulgence ought to be proclaimed with all precaution, lest the people
should mistakenly believe it of more value than all other works of charity.
42.
Christians should be taught, it is not the Pope's opinion that the buying of
indulgence is in any way comparable to works of charity.
43.
Christians should be taught, he who gives to the poor, or lends to a needy man,
does better than buying indulgence.
44. For,
by the exercise of charity, charity increases and man grows better, while by
means of indulgence, he does not become better, but only freer from punishment.
45.
Christians should be taught, he who sees his neighbor in distress, and,
nevertheless, buys indulgence, is not partaking in the Pope's pardons, but in the
anger of God.
46.
Christians should be taught, unless they are rich enough, it is their duty to
keep what is necessary for the use of their households, and by no means to
throw it away on indulgences.
47.
Christians should be taught, the buying of indulgences is optional and not
commanded.
48.
Christians should be taught, the Pope, in selling pardons, has more want and
more desire of a devout prayer for himself than of the money.
49.
Christians should be taught, the Pope's pardons are useful as far as one does
not put confidence in them, but on the contrary most dangerous, if through them
one loses the fear of God.
50.
Christians should be taught, if the Pope knew the ways and doings of the
preachers of indulgences, he would prefer that St. Peter's Minster should be
burnt to ashes, rather than that it should be built up of the skin, flesh, and
bones of his lambs.
51. Christians should be taught, the Pope, as it is his bounden
duty to do, is indeed also willing to give of his own money - and should St. Peter's
be sold thereto - to those from whom the preachers of indulgences do most
extort money.
52. It
is a vain and false thing to hope to be saved through indulgences, though the
commissary - nay, the Pope himself - was to pledge his own soul therefore.
53.
Those who, on account of a sermon concerning indulgences in one church, condemn
the word of God to silence in the others, are enemies of Christ and of the
Pope.
54.
Wrong is done to the word of God if one in the same sermon spends as much or
more time on indulgences as on the word of the Gospel.
55. The
opinion of the Pope cannot be otherwise than this:- If an indulgence - which is
the lowest thing - be celebrated with one bell, one procession and ceremonies,
then the Gospel - which is the highest thing - must be celebrated with a
hundred bells, a hundred processions, and a hundred ceremonies.
56. The
treasures of the Church, whence the Pope grants his dispensation are neither
sufficiently named nor known among the community of Christ.
57. It
is manifest that they are not temporal treasures, for the latter are not
lightly spent, but rather gathered by many of the preachers.
58. Nor
are they the merits of Christ and of the saints, for these, without the Pope's
aid, work always grace to the inner man, cross, death, and hell to the other
man.
59. St.
Lawrence called the poor of the community the treasures of the community and of
the Church, but he understood the word according to the use in his time.
60. We
affirm without pertness that the keys of the Church, bestowed through the merit
of Christ, are this treasure.
61. For
it is clear that the Pope's power is sufficient for the remission of penalties
and forgiveness in the reserved cases.
62. The
right and true treasure of the Church is the most Holy Gospel of the glory and
grace of God.
63. This
treasure, however, is deservedly most hateful, for it makes the first to be
last.
64.
While the treasure of indulgence is deservedly most agreeable, for it makes the
last to be first.
65.
Therefore, the treasures of the Gospel are nets, with which, in times of yore,
one fished for the men of Mammon.
66. But
the treasures of indulgence are nets, with which now-a-days one fishes for the
Mammon of men.
67.
Those indulgences, which the preachers proclaim to be great mercies, are indeed
great mercies, forasmuch as they promote gain.
68. And
yet they are of the smallest compared to the grace of God and to the devotion
of the Cross.
69.
Bishops and curates ought to mark with eyes and ears, that the commissaries of
apostolical (that is, Popish) pardons are received with all reverence.
70. But
they ought still more to mark with eyes and ears, that these commissaries do
not preach their own fancies instead of what the Pope has commanded.
71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolical pardons, be
anathema and cursed.
72. But
blessed be he who is on his guard against the preacher's of pardons naughty and
impudent words.
73. As
the Pope justly disgraces and excommunicates those who use any kind of
contrivance to do damage to the traffic in indulgences.
74. Much
more it is his intention to disgrace and excommunicate those who, under the
pretext of indulgences, use contrivance to do damage to holy love and truth.
75. To
think that the Popish pardons have power to absolve a man even if - to utter an
impossibility - he had violated the Mother of God, is madness.
76. We
assert on the contrary that the Popish pardon cannot take away the least of
daily sins, as regards the guilt of it.
77. To
say that St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could show no greater mercies, is
blasphemy against St. Peter and the Pope.
78. We
assert on the contrary that both this and every other Pope has greater mercies
to show: namely, the Gospel, spiritual powers, gifts of healing, etc.
(1.Cor.XII).
79. He
who says that the cross with the Pope's arms, solemnly set on high, has as much
power as the Cross of Christ, blasphemes God.
80.
Those bishops, curates, and theologists, who allow such speeches to be uttered
among the people, will have one day to answer for it.
81. Such
impudent sermons concerning indulgences make it difficult even for learned men
to protect the Pope's honor and dignity against the calumnies, or at all events
against the searching questions, of the laymen.
82. As
for instance: - Why does not the Pope deliver all souls at the same time out of
Purgatory for the sake of most holy love and on account of the bitterest
distress of those souls - this being the most imperative of all motives, -
while he saves an infinite number of souls for the sake of that most miserable
thing money, to be spent on St. Peter's Minster: - this being the very
slightest of motives?
83. Or
again: - Why do masses for the dead continue, and why does not the Pope return
or permit to be withdrawn the funds which were established for the sake of the
dead, since it is now wrong to pray for those who are already saved?
84.
Again: - What is this new holiness of God and the Pope that, for money's sake,
they permit the wicked and the enemy of God to save a pious soul, faithful to
God, and yet will not save that pious and beloved soul without payment, out of
love, and on account of its great distress?
85.
Again: - Why is it that the canons of penance, long abrogated and dead in
themselves, because they are not used, are yet still paid for with money
through the granting of pardons, as if they were still in force and alive?
86.
Again: - Why does not the Pope build St. Peter's Minster with his own money -
since his riches are now more ample than those of Crassus, - rather than with the
money of poor Christians?
87.
Again: -Why does the Pope remit or give to those who, through perfect
penitence, have already a right to plenary remission and pardon?
88.
Again: - What greater good could the Church receive, than if the Pope presented
this remission and pardon a hundred times a day to every believer, instead of
but once, as he does now?
89. If
the Pope seeks by his pardon the salvation of souls, rather than money, why
does he annul letters of indulgence granted long ago, and declare them out of
force, though they are still in force?
90. To
repress these very telling questions of the laymen by force, and not to solve
them by telling the truth, is to expose the Church and the Pope to the enemy's
ridicule and to make Christian people unhappy.
91. Therefore, if pardons were preached according to the Pope's
intention and opinion, all these objections would be easily answered, nay, they
never had occurred.
92. Away
then with all those prophets who say to the community of Christ, "Peace,
peace", and there is no peace.
93. But
blessed be all those prophets who say to the community of Christ, "The
cross, the cross," and there is no cross.
94.
Christians should be exhorted to endeavor to follow Christ their Head through
Cross, Death, and Hell,
95. And
thus hope with confidence to enter Heaven through many miseries, rather than in
false security.
M. D. XVII
